The NFL owners approved a rule change on Tuesday that guarantees each team one possession during overtime in the regular season.
The rule change makes the league’s regular-season overtime rules the same as its postseason overtime rules. If the game remains tied after each team has possessed the ball, sudden death will decide it.
However, a proposal to expand the overtime period to 15 minutes failed. So, the overtime period will remain ten minutes in length.
Under the old rules, the team that won the toss could end the game if it scored a touchdown on its first possession.
“In 2024, the team winning the coin toss in overtime went 12-4 and overtime lasted only 11.6 plays,” Pro Football Talk reported. “The first-drive touchdown percentage was 37.5 percent.
“The league reduced regular-season overtime from a maximum of 15 minutes to 10 minutes in 2017, and that will remain the case in 2025 over safety concerns of additional plays.”
One possible drawback of not expanding the overtime period to 15 minutes is that it heightens the likelihood of a game ending in a tie. If the game remains tied after both teams possess the ball, assuming an average drive would last at least three to four minutes, there wouldn’t be much time left to break that tie in a ten-minute quarter.
Regardless, the league can always revisit the issue and extend the overtime period if the new regular-season overtime rules lead to a slew of ties.
